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Penn,

The law does allow for unmarked cars, I have no problem with that part of it. There has to be some way for police to have undercover cars for some things (well, the way police work is done now anyway).

My point was that there is an AG ruling that says only the markings specifically allowed can be on the car. The law says unmarked, which means no markings, so a plain car is allowed. The law says the ones with markings will be in contrasting colors. These are marked, but not in contrasting colors, so they do not meet the requirements set by the law and AG decision.

No department I am ever running (if any) will have cars marked like that (or unmarked cars for traffic use).




On the other point, I agree with what Kevin posted about how to handle being stopped by an unmarked car. Let the officer know you are aware of him by slowing down and signaling, but keep going slowly until you are in a safe area or can get a marked unit. Do this even if you are calling 911 and trying to verify the stop as legit.

txinvestigator wrote:

srothstein wrote:

Worst of all is the cars I believe to be illegal but growing in popularity - the stealth marked cars with the markings on the side in the same color - but a very slightly different shade - as the car's paint job. I would love to see those explicitly banned since I think they are just for the money.

What is illegal about that?

According to the transportation code, police cars must be marked in contrasting colors (actually all cars with exempt plates). Unmarked cars may get regular plates for use undercover. Back a few years ago, when there was a move to sell advertising space on patrol cars, there was an AG ruling that state law forbid any markings not expressly permitted on the car.

Since the car is not unmarked, and it is not contrasting colors, it is illegal, according to this ruling.

I just wanted to point out that there is one department in the state that has a fleet of unmarked cars, and the only marked units are not police cars but the civilian fleet vehicles. TABC uses unmarked Crown Vic patrol cars for the agents with just a small red and blue light in the windshield and on the back deck. They also use pickups for the supervisors in the field. All of the cars have regular plates so that you cannot tell them as police vehicles at a glance. They can, and do, make traffic stops (with a few agents getting in trouble for too many stops).

AS CHL/LEO pointed out, the law requires you to stop for the vehicle displaying the red and blue (or just red for fire) lights. In most cases, if you signal your intent and pull over at the next safe or lighted place, no one will think badly of you. If you just ignore the car, you will hear the siren and see more cars fairly quickly. You will also get charged with evading (which is a felony) at that point. This may give you a defense since evading does require you to know it is a police officer.

I also wanted to round out the discussion with the point that many marked units cannot be told from the front when they are behind you. The markings are on the side, so you would not see them.

Worst of all is the cars I believe to be illegal but growing in popularity - the stealth marked cars with the markings on the side in the same color - but a very slightly different shade - as the car's paint job. I would love to see those explicitly banned since I think they are just for the money.